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    1. Crossfire 10 yrs ago
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"Yeah, well, one thing you'll learn pretty quickly around here is the Alliance doesn't care much when it comes to small things like a scraping chair leg." Stryker said to Henry disdainfully "I doubt they'd even give us food if they thought it wasn't essential to completing our mission."

He nibbled on some more toast, conversing lightly until Tib and Matija came in. Stryker smiled, remembering how ridiculous they looked leaving the bar last night. He kept that shit eating grin on his face until Tibulass took a seat a little further down the table. He sat there, waiting for either of them to notice the look on his face, the look that he had something to say. Matija didn't stick around long, just grabbed up some food and took off again. Nevertheless.

For some reason, his gaze seemed to be drawn in Tib's direction, and The longer he looked, the more he began to notice how different she'd become over the last two days. When Stryker and the others had discovered her new form in Med Bay, she was just... Tibulus in a woman's body. Now, just a mere 48 hours or so later, she was still Tib in a woman's body, but she just seemed infinitely more feminine in her body language, speech, and just general attitude. Must have been the hormones setting in. Stryker finished eating and slid back his chair to carry the dishes over to the cleaning station, stopping on the way to pour another half a cup of coffee into his mug.


@Polyphemus Just posting here to say I'm interested. Haven't got a character yet, but I'll be back with an idea soon! Edit: Approved via PM

@Xandrya

"For you love, anythin'" he said as he scooted even closer and pressed tightly into her back. He noticed the faint bar smell of booze and smoke in the air, probably clinging to their hair and clothes. Grayson was too comfortable (outside of his self-inflicted illness) for it to bother him. Over time, he noticed that Amy always had it worse the morning after they'd been drinking, so he did whatever needed to be done to make her feel better. He decided that after they got up and showered, Grayson would grab the bed sheets and their clothes to chuck in the laundry.

Idly, he pulled his left arm out from under the pillow and groped around awkwardly over his head until he found the small cut-out and pulled out the remote. Flipping down through the options on the small LED screen, he found what he was looking for, angled the remote towards the window screen and tapped Enter. The screen stayed blank but the faint relaxing whoosh sound of rain started to play.

"That's nice" he said lowly, his throat still dry and sore "Could stay here all day listenin' to this."

@Strange Rodent

Stryker nibbled on a piece of toast, it was still only himself and Harrison in the kitchen, and conversation was light. His datapad, laying on the table beside his plate, suddenly chirped. An access request from someone on the dock, must be the new recruits.

"Mm, leave that there" he said to Harrison pointing at his plate "I'll be right back."
He slipped the datapad into his pocket as he stood and headed to the elevator for another trip down to the cargo bay. He hit the button and the ramp started to lower. A handcuffed and gagged human slowly walked up the ramp, seemingly laboring with every other step. An Alliance officer, carrying a duffel bag, followed him up.

"I thought new recruits were supposed to be delivered unharmed" Stryker said.
"He tripped" the officer said, his name tag read Olbric, though he didn't bother to introduce himself. He tossed the duffel down next to Henry and handed over a small black envelope.
"Cap'n Dawson said to hand you this, 'ere's the scum, he's yer problem now." He slipped the cuffs off and without another word, the officer started to walk back down the ramp.
"Wait" Stryker called out "I thought there were two recruits?"
"Oh yah, other transport tight-beamed us a few hours back, they're runnin' late, gonna catch up to you at some point."

And just like that, Stryker was alone with the new recruit. The bastard hadn't even taken off the gag. Stryker walked over and pried it off before tossing it into the far corner.
"What a dick. Hey man, welcome aboard. I'm Stryker, come on up, we're having breakfast, you can meet the crew and introduce yourself up there. Don't forget your stuff."
@Xandrya@Gardevoiran@Silver Carrot@Rultaos@iTem@BKburke@superservo27@t2wave@ArkmageddonCat@Strange Rodent@TheEvanCat@Vampire Stepdad@sntabe@Damo021

SAL took the information about the potential drone dealers and thanked Qoorb by transferring over an extra 1000 credits before bidding the scavenger farewell. The robot carried on about it's business and within an hour, he was returning to the ship with a push-cart containing his new acquisitions, fists only slightly tinged with a green blood smear from a Tragladarian who got in his way. The cart rolled silently up into the cargo bay and SAL pushed it over to the far corner. He noticed Koren hard at work through the engine room window. Harrison was nowhere to be seen, probably off cooking sustenance for the other fleshbags. The Tobi situation would have to wait just a little bit longer- Stryker's orders had been clear, the ship needed to be ready by the morning.

------

"We can discuss the more technical aspects of it all later, but yeah, great to have you aboard. I suppose now's a good time to mention there's a line in your contract, the one the Alliance will want you to sign, about also being part of the ground team during combat ops. There's hazard pay included and all that, but like I just said, no need to get into all of that now. Get your stuff and meet us at the ship. C-Dock, berth 15."

As Sadaet headed off, Stryker sat back in his seat to finish his drink. Benny had a bit of a dumbfounded look on his face, like he truly couldn't believe what he was seeing as he stared across the bar. Stryker turned to look and nearly spat his drink out as he saw Tib carrying a giggling Matija in a full-on bridal carry, moving swiftly towards the exit. The look on Stryker's face was probably pretty similar to Benny's as he spun back around in his seat and reached for his beer.

"Well" he said, tipping up his glass to finish the drink "That was... unexpected."

Stryker and Benny sat there in silence, each processing what they had just seen. The complete lull in conversation gave a waitress the opportunity to sidle over and speak.

"Excuse me sir, but before they left, those women in the corner booth claimed to be your employees? Said that you'd be paying their tab?"
Stryker sighed and cracked a smile, still in disbelief even as he reached for his datapad to transfer the credits "Of course they did."

"Is that a.. problem?"
"No no, it's fine. That is to say, I do know them. Here you are." He finished up the transfer, including a bit extra as a tip for the poor girl's trouble, then went back to sitting in silence. Both men still surpringly speechless, I mean, what do you say after seeing that happen before your eyes?

A situation seemed to be unfolding down at the counter, at last something to distract their attention. To Stryker it looked like the robotic bartender was calmly dealing with a pair of loud and disorderly patrons when it suddenly snapped into action. Stryker watched on in awe as the robot handily fought off the aggressors, despite being outnumbered. He had signaled to Benny to not interfere, but when the gun came out and people began running, Stryker dove to the floor, reaching for the pistol tucked into his boot, but still, the robot took care of business, although sadly, there were a pair of casualties when the dust finally settled. As he watched the robot stand still in the middle of the carnage, an idea came to his head. Stryker approached the robot carefully, his hands up to clearly show he was unarmed.

"Excuse me a second" he said cautiously "You handled yourself well there. I was pretty impressed. And sorry if this seems insensitive, but it seems like you might be in need of a new job now. One where you could put those skills to use. My ship can always use an extra pair of hands if you're interested."

"I... I did?" Pax responded, slowly lowering his gun arm before looking back at the bodies around him. "Well... I suppose joining you might be the best thing for me. Though... I have a few things to take care of while I'm at it." He continued, heading for the door and stopping in the doorway. "Oh! And where can I find your ship when I've... taken care of my things?"

Stryker told him where the ship was docked and they shared a quick introduction before parting ways, agreeing to chat later about payment and the like. Once he made sure all their drinks were paid for, Stryker (and Benny) left the bar to return to the ship, all in all satisied with the events of the night.

The Next Morning....

Stryker woke early, it was just after 7am local time. He'd have slept a little longer, but his datapad starting chirping that oh-so familiar chirp, a message from the Alliance. He rolled over in bed and stretched out to grab the small tablet, squinting with the glare of the words on the screen. Still half-asleep, he skimmed through the correspondence, mumbling aloud.

"Two more recruits, transported separately, communications transponder codes, mhmm, dossiers attached, blah blah blah, official bullshit, this message will self-destruct, ok."

A few minutes later, Stryker pulled himself out of bed and trudged into his bathroom to splash some water into his face. He got dressed and wandered down to the Crew Deck, to see if anyone else was up yet and to make a pot of coffee. The captain was pleasantly surprised to find that Harrison was already there, whipping up enough breakfast for the entire crew.

"Morning" Stryker said, crossing the kitchen floor to fetch himself a cup of coffee "Might wanna throw on a little extra, just got word that we'll have two more joining us before we take off in a few hours."

----

Grayson groaned lowly as the thump-thump of a monster headache roused him from his slumber. The toll of having a good night like the one he and Amy had just shared. There was a faint smell of food cooking wafting into the slightly ajar door of their room. His right arm was curled up around her midsection, and he could feel in her breathing that she was either waking up or already awake.

"Mornin' love" he managed to rasp out, his voice gone from all the cheering he'd done during the holo game "You gettin' up yet or did ya wanna stay in bed a while?"

-------

SAL walked out of the engine room, his feet clanging loudly on the metal grating of the landing. He had just completed the final repairs of the engine, though he'd resolved for the Juz' to wake up before running any advanced diagnostics. The robot walked down the stairs to the cargo bay floor and walked over to the push cart holding the spool of mainframe cabling and the crate containing the new drone frame. He had just grasped the handle to wheel it over to the elevator when his audio sensors picked up a faint noise from the opposite end of the cargo bay floor. The ramp had been closed all night and SAL was the only living being (figuratively speaking) in the cargo area.... or was he? A quick optic-thermo scan picked up a heat signature from an industrial-size ammo crate. Fearing vermin, or worse, another stowaway, SAL retrieved his shotgun from the hidden compartment in his leg and approached the crate, gun at the ready. He swiftly hauled open the top of the crate and shoved the barrel of the shotgun into the face of a cowering human who wasn't supposed to be there. With one hand, SAL grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him out, dropping him roughly on the floor beside the crate.

"Stay there, and don't move." SAL uttered before pinging Stryker's comms unit.
Making it official: accepted!
@Vampire Stepdad Accepted!

Here's a short summary of the story so far if you need it. We'll talk in PM about character introduction ideas, so if you have anything in that regard, send it my way!


@iTem@superservo27@Silver Carrot

"That's enough" SAL said to both his companions, authorizing the full 12,000 credits "We have no need to bargain while we have access to this account. Time is of the essence, the ship needs to be 100% operational within the next 15 hours, so both of you take the parts back and get to work."

As they headed off, towing the parts away in a pair of wheeled crates, SAL stayed put.

"I require something else. If you don't have it, I'll pay for information on where I can get a fully operational drone frame, humanoid-style preferably, one that's either had it's memory core and Mainchip database formatted or one that's never had an AI loaded into it. I also need a pair of Quantum Accelerators and at least 4 feet of mainframe cabling."

______________________________

@Gardevoiran@ArkmageddonCat@Rultaos@TheEvanCat

Stryker returned Tibulass' salute before heading over to the table with Sadaet and Benny. He waited patiently for Sadaet and Benny to finish, sipping away at his beer with an amused look on his face. Over eight months of dreaming finally about to become reality.

"You're right" he started simply "The two girls in the corner, they're ours too. Our whole crew will have similarly falsified signatures, because in the public eye, none of us exist. All of our information was redacted, classified and sealed up the minute the Alliance got their hands on us, press-ganged us into this fucking Project of theirs- Revenant."

He took a minute or two to quickly explain the basics of Project Revenant, stopping every now and then to take a drink, careful to not let his glass get too empty, lest a waitress sidle over and overhear anything he said.

"... so that's where you come in. You see, we had this rogue AI that installed itself aboard, Ren it called itself. Flew with us for a few months before it up and left, but it did leave behind a small part of itself, converted into a VI with very basic controls over some ship systems, but like I said before, no way to get fully inside the Alliance's surveillance and control subsystem."

He took a breath and lowered his voice even further, it was barely more than a whisper now.
"A few weeks ago, I filed a report to the Alliance that the Ren VI was decaying, causing electrical malfunctions throughout the ship, and that no one in the crew could do anything to fix it, so I recommended hiring a person like yourself, which they approved of obviously. That's when I reached out to you, because I've heard of your reputation, and your skill set is exactly what we need.... because that report was a lie. About a week before I sent the report, I went to Benny here, asked him to whip up a virus, masked as a software update, which I injected to the system and let it sit for a few days, just long enough to cause a bit of inconvenience, so I could send a report. On paper, you're being hired to strip out the VI and uncouple the AI Tower that's still hardwired in, but in actuality, I want you to find a way inside the surveillance subsystem and set up a kill switch, something to disrupt, burn out, and permanently destroy their surveillance. They've got a kill switch of their own set up inside our weapons system, so we can't turn on the Alliance no matter how much we'd like to. And I think that's really the root of the matter, I've grown pretty fond of these folks over the last few months, they're all good people, and I don't want to spend a minute longer than necessary under the Alliance's boot, being a glorified slave, doing all the dirty work for them, time to break free, and if the crew is willing to follow me, we're gonna make life hell for the bastards that did this to us in the first place, so what do you say Sadaet, you in?"
@Rultaos@TheEvanCat@ArkmageddonCat@iTem@Gardevoiran

"Nothin' fancy. In fact, come as you are, Skelly should be more than enough to handle the situation, if one arises."

A few minutes later, the pair had exited the ship and headed off into the jostling crowd, conversing lightly as they headed towards The Wasted Wormhole. In Stryker's experience, it was one of the better places on Helios to grab a drink, quiet, out of the way, never too busy, and usually avoided by the rougher crowds. It was also conveniently close to the docks, away from the hustle and bustle of the main throughfares.

As expected, the place wasn't very lively. Stryker's gaze was drawn almost instantly to a corner booth where he spotted Matija and Tib, apparently very deep in conversation. Stryker gave a cursory nod in case either of them spotted him and also to draw Benny's attention to it. A pair of bartenders stood on opposite ends of the bar, one was a human woman, the other was a robot. A trio of servers, two humans, one Xaanderosi, flitted around delivering drinks to the various groups sitting at the tables and booths. A man sitting alone at the bar, the only person in the place drinking alone, had to be the guy. Stryker headed over there and leaned against the bar, his elbows and forearms resting comfortably on the counter top.

"Sadaet, I presume? I'm Stryker. Let me grab a drink and we can talk business."
He grabbed the attention of the closest bartender, the human girl.
"I'll have whatever he's having, and get my friend here one as well. We'll be grabbing a booth, take 'em over there please."
@Damo021 We're currently spending some time at a space station for rest and resupply. In the story they're about 12-ish hours away from departing, irl, whenever everyone's finished with the adventures they're on, a couple days or so max.
@Damo021 Oh hey there! Put together a CS and we can add you to the group before the next mission starts!
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